Premium Member Reminder Email Error

Plenty of you will know about this, because you’ll have received an email like this:

“We hope you’re enjoying your Second Life.  This is a reminder that your, Second Life Premium Annual Plan will be renewed on a certain date, at which time you’ll be charged a certain fee (USD).  You don’t need to do anything; renewal and billing are automatic.”

I’m not as eagle eyed as others as I thought “Bloody hell, they’re keen” as my renewal is months away, it was actually telling me the renewal was due earlier this year. Others received emails telling them their renewals were due in 2009 or 2008, which is easier to spot….. that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

However there’s no need to panic, just keep your eyes peeled on your bills, you shouldn’t be charged, Linden Lab know all about it.

An update on the grid status page informs us:

“[Posted 2:35am PST, 14 November 2011] Earlier this evening, an e-mail went out to some residents reminding them of a payment for their annual premium membership was coming due to some date in the past. We are investigating this issue. If you received an e-mail stating that your account would be charged for a premium renewal on a date that is in the past, please ignore the e-mail. We will not be charging your account for the stated fees.

If you do find that you have been charged in error, please file a new support case on our website so that we can assist you further.”

These things happen and hopefully nobody has been billed in error, however there have been some oddities lately with communications. I sometimes login a second time in the day to find instant messages that I should have received first time around have appeared.

I sometimes see users reporting they’ve received an email from Linden Lab that I haven’t received, whereas sometimes I receive emails from Linden Lab that others say they haven’t received. I’m not sure quite what happens there, but if Linden Lab’s email servers are starting to burp old emails out, then we could be in for a few more surprise emails. I believe that at one stage Linden Lab were using GMail for their email system.

This is a technical glitch of sorts and as I said, these things happen, Linden Lab were quick to respond and hopefully it’s just some erroneous email glitch, rather than a far more concerning billing glitch.